I had some fun at Hollywood Forever cemetery with a cluster of flower pots that were gathered outside the Cathedral Mausoleum. I’d gotten a new Nikkor 50mm 1.8D AF prime lens, and wanted to play with the excellent bokeh this lens offers a photographer. I’ve been using a Nikkor 18-105mm VR AF lens for my almost-macro photography, and had been wanting something more appropriate for those kinds of shots. I’m certainly not disappointed.

I captured the shot of this second rose in the same cluster of flowers. As you can see, these were live pots of flowers, rather than the cut variety. There’s always a very definite different between live and cut specimens. I’m glad that I was able to permanently capture the beauty of these miniature Suns.

To finish off this set, this last photo is from a bush on the grounds of the cemetery. The flowers are white, but it’s worth noting that the buds are kissed with a pale pink blush before they open into lovely white blooms. I took several shots of various roses in this particular bush, but this was the only result I really liked.

I keep telling people that you can take over a thousand shots and will often be lucky to get even a few that are worth being proud enough to share with others. I’ve taken to sitting some of them down to show them the truth of that statement.

We spent an afternoon visiting local cemeteries and since my friend hadn’t yet visited Hollywood Forever, we also stopped there so she could take her own pictures. She suggested I shoot this aspect of the mausoleum, as she thought it would be fun to show the depth of the place — the blue reflection on the floor from the stained glass window was what caught my eye.

My goodness, but she was right! Perfect!

Niches containing urns and artifacts line the wall to the left of the corridor, and one of a pair of marble Saints guard the corridor beyond.